By Pablo Alvarez
Burgundy,
bottle by bottle
A great collection is built through individual choices: a favourite vineyard, a vintage worth following, a bottle set aside for the right company. Our online "wine o’clock" auction #127 brings that pleasure into focus, with 37 lots led by Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, alongside François Raveneau, selected Bordeaux wines and a remarkable historic Cognac.
At the heart of the auction, the Domaine De La Romanée-Conti’s 2012 and 2013 assortments, now offered separately, provide an opportunity to explore Romanée-Conti, La Tâche, Richebourg, Grands-Échézeaux, Échézeaux and Corton. Romanée-Conti also appears in five successive vintages, from 2015 to 2019, while magnums of La Tâche and Richebourg 2017 add another dimension to the selection. Together, these wines invite collectors to follow both individual vineyards and the changing expression of each year.
Provenance adds to their appeal. Acquired directly from a European importer of the Domaine and carefully preserved, the DRC wines display very good appearances and levels. Several groups of La Tâche and Richebourg retain consecutive bottle numbers, a detail collectors will appreciate. The three bottles of La Tâche 2012 in lot 11 are one such example.
Many wines are offered by the single bottle, giving bidders the freedom to choose precisely what they would like to cellar or share. A bottle of Romanée-Conti 2012 or Échézeaux 2012 might fill a gap in a collection, mark an occasion or become the centrepiece of a memorable dinner. There is a particular pleasure in selecting a great wine with its eventual opening in mind.
Bordeaux brings a smaller but compelling selection
Le Pin 2019 in an original wooden case of three magnums, individual magnums of the 2021 vintage, and Petrus 2021. Six vintages of Château d’Yquem, spanning 1913 to 1962, offer a further perspective on collecting across generations.
The final lot: 1811, an heir, a comet and a Cognac
The auction closes with a bottle whose vintage holds particular resonance for admirers of Napoleonic history: Cognac Vieille Fine Champagne “Réserve de l’Empereur” 1811.
On 20 March 1811, Marie-Louise of Austria gave birth to Napoleon’s son, immediately styled King of Rome and later known as Napoleon II. The Emperor finally had the dynastic heir he had long awaited. Just five days later, on 25 March, the French astronomer Honoré Flaugergues discovered the great comet that would become inseparable from the reputation of that year’s harvest. A few months afterwards, the grapes associated with this Cognac’s catalogued vintage were gathered in Charente.
For a collector, these events give 1811 an unusually tangible significance. This was the year before the Russian campaign of 1812, which would transform Napoleon’s fortunes. The vintage belongs to a moment when the birth of a son appeared to secure the dynasty’s future, before the reversals that would bring the Empire to an end.
The bottle itself carries a distinctive reminder of that history: a glass medallion bearing the imperial “N”. Together with the designation “Réserve de l’Empereur”, it gives the final lot a particular appeal for collectors interested in the Napoleonic era. These features evoke an imperial association, although the available provenance does not establish that the bottle belonged to Napoleon or came from his personal cellars.
Its attraction is already considerable: a Cognac catalogued from the celebrated Comet Vintage, predating the phylloxera crisis and recalling a Charentais vineyard very different from today’s. For the spirits enthusiast and the admirer of Napoleon alike, it offers a compelling connection to the year of an imperial heir and an extraordinary harvest.
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